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John Favreau and the former showrunners of Smallville are working to bring Terry Brooks's Shannara novels to the TV screen. MTV has bought the rights and is developing the project, with a series commitment: if they decide to proceed, they'll bypass the pilot stage. Favreau will direct the first episode and executive produce, whilst the Smallville guys will handle the show week-by-week.

The series will start off by adapting The Elfstones of Shannara, skipping Sword due to likely legal concerns over sailing to close to Tolkien waters. How the series will work is unclear; I can't see them doing a book a year and recasting every single season (years and decades pass between each novel in the series), so after the first season they may press on with new adventures featuring the Elfstones cast.

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The Elfstones of Shannara is, without doubt, the greatest event in television history concerning the fantasy genre.

Unfortunately, this is certain to signal the end of Game of Thrones. The majority of long-time fantasy readers have disregarded GoT, categorizing GRRM as a writer of alternative history rather than fantasy. Elfstones is a fast-paced thrill-ride, full of action scenes ideal for CGI which audiences so desire, unhampered by meandering political dialogue that bores viewers and ultimately leads to a show's cancellation.

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The Elfstones of Shannara is, without doubt, the greatest event in television history concerning the fantasy genre.

Unfortunately, this is certain to signal the end of Game of Thrones. The majority of long-time fantasy readers have disregarded GoT, categorizing GRRM as a writer of alternative history rather than fantasy. Elfstones is a fast-paced thrill-ride, full of action scenes ideal for CGI which audiences so desire, unhampered by meandering political dialogue that bores viewers and ultimately leads to a show's cancellation.

This is a fantastic bit of trolling,,, Well done and nicely played....

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Interesting. I find it tough to see this going well, not out of any particular spite or cynicism -- MTV doing an epic fantasy show does sound a little weird, but I dunno anything about MTV really -- but simply because of the budget required.

The villains in The Elfstones of Shannara will iirc almost all require heavy effects work of one form or another, whether practical or cg. The central plot is a quest, but the scenes that provide the broader context surrounding that quest are also substantial and include major battle scenes involving hundreds of fantasy creatures assaulting massive seven-tiered ramps and cliff faces etc, and I just can't see how a show working on a tv, non-premium cable budget will be able to mount scenes like that in any form, even corny versions of them. The fantasy elements in general of course come much thicker and faster than in a show like GoT, requiring either even more fx work or substantial changes from the book. I just can't see how this'll possibly work, but I'll watch them try with interest. Personally, if they must adapt Shannara, I think the choice of book is a good one: Elfstones shows off some slightly more distinctive elements of Brooks' world and provides some compelling soapy character stuff for the show to play with. The Heritage of Shannara sequence might have worked as well, but this is a good choice.

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Elfstones is a good book and Favreau knows what he's doing. However, it being on MTV and now showrun by the TMNT guy and written by Smallvile chaps, I'm worried this is gonna ruin itself by mixing that CW-style teenage nonsense with the epic fantasy story.

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I am pretty excited for this. I love the Shannara universe, even though the books aren't nearly as enjoyable for me as they used to be, and elfstones has always been my favorite of the books.

As for MTV doing this, I think they can do it well. Personally I really like Teen Wolf, awkward, faking it and liked the first ep of Finding carter, so I think they can do decent shows that aren't reality tv stuff.

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Elfstones is a good book and Favreau knows what he's doing. However, it being on MTV and now showrun by the TMNT guy and written by Smallvile chaps, I'm worried this is gonna ruin itself by mixing that CW-style teenage nonsense with the epic fantasy story.